


Like the Rock

by icandrawamoth



Series: February Ficlet Challenge 2020 [8]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ahch-To, Angsty Wedge Antilles, Dialogue Light, February Ficlet Challenge, February Ficlet Challenge 2020, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Introspection, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Wedge Antilles Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22766251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icandrawamoth/pseuds/icandrawamoth
Summary: "What's the point? How long will we have to rebuild before it happens again? How long until evil swallows good again, and this damned cycle continues? More fighting, more death, and for what?"
Series: February Ficlet Challenge 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624723
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8
Collections: February Ficlet Challenge 2020





	Like the Rock

**Author's Note:**

> For February Ficlet Challenge prompt "genre savvy."

After Exegol, Wedge finally forces himself to go to Ahch-To. He's been wanting to visit since he first heard the planet's name, the place Luke went when he disappeared - the place he died. And after Exegol, after so much won and so very much lost, how can anything he might find there compare? What's there to be afraid of?

Wedge gets the coordinates from Rey, gently refuses her offer to go with him, accepts her offering to borrow the Falcon, asks her to keep an eye on Norra while he's gone. His wife is hurting, too, he knows this, but he still has to go. Rey only nods, her eyes wide and serious, somehow seeming to understand.

On the planet, Wedge lands the ship and disembarks to a cold, rainy afternoon. Small robed creatures watch him from a distance but don't approach. Wedge walks among the structures on the main part of the island. Luke's hut isn't hard to find. It's neat to the point of near-bareness inside, but Wedge sees a small number of identifiable objects lying around.

One a desk is his lightsaber. Wedge can't bring himself to touch it.

Emotion climbing his throat, he leaves the hut, starting up a worn path to the top of the mountain. It's a kind of temple, clearly an important place for the Jedi Order. Wedge can tell that much. He imagines Luke spent a lot of time here, and Rey, too. At one side is an opening, a jut of stone over the ocean with a large, flat rock atop it. A perfect meditation spot.

Wedge walks over and runs his fingers across the pale stone. There's a deep crack across it, and he wonders vaguely at what caused it. A natural result of time and water and erosion - or something more? He gazes across the cold, restless waves below, and they have no answers for him.

Wedge sits, the strength suddenly seeming to leave his legs, emotion overwhelming him again.

"I don't know what we're supposed to do now, Luke," he finds himself saying aloud, as if his old friend can actually hear him. His voice is hoarse, on the verge of cracking like the rock. "We won this war. The Emperor and the First Order are gone. Plans are starting to be made to raise the New Republic again, but..."

Wedge bites his lip hard, barely managing to keep in a sob. He doesn't know why he's doing that. "I don't understand it. They always come back. The Old Republic stood for thousands of years before it fell and became the Empire. We fought it until the New Republic rose in it's place, but only a few decades later, this. The First Order, and they nearly destroyed the Resistance practically before it could get off the ground. A year to rebuild, then Palpatine, and this last battle." He rubs a hand over his face. "We won, but at what cost? So many people died. So many people always die. My son-" Wedge chokes, hands clenched into fists as grief threatens to swallow him. He'd been too late to save Snap. He's been too late to save so many over his life.

"And even if I had," he says aloud, tears on his face now, "what's the point? How long will we have to rebuild before it happens again? How long until evil swallows good again, and this damned cycle continues? More fighting, more death, and for what?"

He pounds of a fist against the stone, feeling so very impotent. He doesn't know why he came here. He doesn't know why he's asking these things. He'd known Luke well enough to know that even with the Force, his friend wouldn't have had answers.

For awhile, Wedge just lets himself cry, the sounds of his sobs lost to the wind and the ocean far below. He's completely alone here. The island's strange residents won't bother him. The Force is his only witness, and he's as blind to it as he ever has been. He knows some who are powerful in its ways can commune with those who have passed into it, and he wishes more strongly than ever that were the case for him. Even if Luke can't solve this for him, he just wants so badly to talk to his old friend.

Finally, when there are no tears left, he looks out over the water again. Over the island Luke called home for years. The sun is starting to break through the clouds, painting green grass with warm light. It's calm and peaceful, and Wedge thinks he maybe understands why Luke wanted to hide here. Block out the conflicts of the galaxy, keep to himself, even if it's just playing at serenity. He wants that too.

But he has responsibilities. Norra needs him. The effort to reform the New Republic will need him. So many of the old guard has been lost, and he needs to do everything he can to help.

Wedge squeezes his eyes closed, concentrating on breathing evenly. Maybe that's it. Maybe they really are helplessly caught in a cycle of violence in the end. Maybe all they can do is the best they can with the time they have. Maybe all he can really do is hold his wife and try to move on, try to help the galaxy move on. Do his best to support the side of good the next time war comes calling.

The idea still makes him want to cry, as much as he knows he'll do it. Wedge Antilles will never back down from a fight, no matter how old and exhausted he is. Good always needs champions, and he will always be there.

He doesn't think it's selfish to hope it isn't asked of him again in his lifetime.


End file.
